


Caged

by Isidar_Mithrim



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Canon Compliant, Character Study, Christmas, Drabble, Family, Flash Fic, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Missing Scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-23
Updated: 2019-09-23
Packaged: 2020-10-26 20:36:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 442
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20748377
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Isidar_Mithrim/pseuds/Isidar_Mithrim
Summary: Three Christmases, three cages, three frames of mind.A short journey through Percy’s thoughts, since he left the Burrow to the moment he wished he’d never left.





	Caged

**Author's Note:**

  * A translation of [Di mediocrità e orgoglio](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/522245) by Isidar Mithrim. 

It was heady, being free.

Free from the obligation to keep high the honor of an unambitious family, free from the stigma of poverty, free from the cage of mediocrity that trapped him for twenty years.

Free to chase his dreams, as Bill and Charlie before him, but Percy wasn’t going to waste a Head Boy curriculum for an adventure, he wasn’t going to leave his country.

No, he was going to do his best to make it a better place.

**

Percy shook his head, bewildered.

He was sure his mother had felt as ashamed as he had for being associated with a Weasley, when his father was found in the Ministry in the middle of the night, like a thief.

Percy had opened that letter with the best intentions, he’d been ready to welcome her unavoidable plead for forgiveness, he’d read it certain to find it dripping with apologies, drenched in tears and regret.

_He was wrong_.

His mother didn’t show a ounce of shame, defending that irresponsible act, selling him the same pathetic justification ended up in the official report.

He threw the letter in the fire without even bothering to read it all and he sent back the wrapped package that had to contain the usual, poor, dull Christmas sweater, the symbol of everything he hated of the family he didn’t want to belong to anymore.

**

Percy mechanically raised his arms when his crying mother put the sweater in his hands, begging him to wear it as the rest of the family, as he deserved to sit with them, as nothing had ever happened.

He kept staring at her, prisoner of his own pride, incapable to make amends.

“C’mon, put it on, Perce!”

“Yeah, she made it especially for you, it has the P for Perfect Prefect!”

“Oh, how silly of me, I thought it stood for _Parsnip_.”

No, he didn’t deserve to eat parsnip with them. He only deserved the scornful glare of his sister, while she took aim.

_Splat_.

When the parsnip landed on his glasses, it was almost a relief not being able to see them anymore.

**

Percy unwrapped the gift with trembling hands and watery eyes.

He wore the sweater – red with a golden W embroidered on the chest, warm as his mother’s hugs – and curled up on the bed, imagining being lulled by the comfy couch of the Burrow, with Celestina Warbeck’s songs in the background.

Now that he was gripped in the vice of the regime, he finally understood what being caged meant.

Now that he couldn’t simply _choose _to get out, he’d give anything to go back to his prison of love.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading :D  
Feel free to drop any feedback, suggestion, correction about the story or the translation, opinion about headcanons and so on ^^  
You can also find me on [tumblr](https://isidar-mithrim.tumblr.com)


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